Nightingale
by Alpha121
Summary: Batman and Robin investigate a crime organization run by the most elusive criminals they have ever faced. While continuously stopping chemical shipments and hunting down their operatives, the owners of the group send out the unstoppable Nightingale to hunt them down. What could happen? T cause I'm paranoid
1. Chapter 1

**Maud's Shipment**

**Hello people! I have yet another story for all the readers following me! (To tell the truth, the author alert thing is kinda like stalking, you know what I mean fellow authors) Anyway, enjoy! I don't own batman, just the plotline and OCs of this story.**

Robin was sitting excitedly in his seat in the Bat mobile; he always loved high speed chases. Right now, he was with Batman trying to catch a train carrying dangerous chemicals to the top two criminals in the United States, Malcolm & Maud.

Also known as the Terrible Twins, these two run a vast network of chemical production centers and lots of guns. They had the top gear and operatives, making things really difficult.

"Robin, take the wheel!" Batman shouted gruffly, jumping onto the train.

"Oh, yeah, sure, leave me to steer. Hey, when do I get to do anything?" Robin muttered, taking Batman's position as the Dark Knight started beating people up, leaving his 'partner' to steer.

Robin swerved to avoid a tree, and hit the brakes, swerving recklessly again as he avoided another. Getting nervous about the technique, he drove onto the tracks behind the train.

Batman called Robin through the bat mobile's speaker. "Robin, I need you to disconnect the storage cars, let the Bat Mobile go on auto pilot."

"On it!" He turned it off, switching on autopilot, shooting a grappling hook onto the train and jumping with a cry of, "Yahoo!"

He climbed a ladder and ran over the cars, gaining on the front relentlessly. He ducked down as the train went through a tunnel.

There was a laugh and someone grabbed his foot.

"Hey!" Robin shouted, and he kicked at whoever had grabbed him. There was a yelp and a crunch as Robin broke the smuggler's nose.

The tunnel came to an end and Robin fought the men who had come up behind him while the train was in the tunnel. Five against one, he liked the odds.

The first one lunged and Robin jumped over him, snapping a kick to the back of the guy's head, sending him tumbling off the train. The others were more cautious. The next one pulled a knife on him, driving Robin back a little, but a little was enough for the others to pounce.

Robin leapt over MR. Knife's head and all the rest landed on him, and three fell off. Only one left, and she looked about twenty two, and looked like a lot of a better fighter than the four nimrods he'd taken out.

"You're the only one left, care to give up now?" He asked.

"Not a chance bird brain." She laughed at him.

Robin attacked.

The mysterious girl sidestepped and grabbed his arm, using his momentum to throw him behind her.

"You will not get through me as easily as you did my mentally impaired friends." She said, trying to make Robin feel stupid.

"We'll see about that!" Robin said, readying himself for an attack, but none came.

This girl was waiting for him to move, he realized. She knew that going on the offensive immediately was a risk, especially on a train with little room.

Robin leapt to her right side, and at the last second bounced over to her left as she moved to retaliate with almost inhuman speed.

He shoved her off balance and she fell off with a yelp of frustration.

Robin ran the rest of the way as fast as he could, jumping down on the platform.

"Finally." He muttered, hitting the lever to disconnect the heavy metal hooks.

As the train separated from the cars, Robin realized that he was on the wrong side, and that he was still speeding off with the train on a narrow bridge.

Jumping off could be suicide, even with the grappling hook.

There was a rustle behind him and he turned to see, surprisingly, the girl he'd knocked off earlier.

"What? How?" Robin asked as he dodged a blow and tried unsuccessfully to land a few of his own. She'd held back on him before.

"When you knocked me off, I went through an open window and beat you here." She said simply, delivering a pinwheel kick to his jaw.

Robin recovered quickly and dodges another kick, landing a blow on her back.

Somehow, she managed to keep her balance and grab him by the cape as he tried to get behind her again.

Robin gasped in surprise as she pulled him into a headlock and cocked a gun with the tip on his head.

"Not a word Bird Boy, now you will do exactly as I say unless you want me to blast your brains out of your skull." She snarled at him. Man, she's strong.

Just then Batman showed up. Using a batarang, he knocked the gun from her hand. Robin recovered quickly as she let go and delivered a kick to her side.

"Sorry Batty, this fight just turned foul. Oh, and when you next see the police commissioner, tell him Maud is in town." She said.

Maud! So that's who this woman is!

Robin tried attacking, and she dodged, darting into the train with the engineer. A moment later, she rocketed into the sky on a jetpack, carrying the remaining chemicals.

There was an explosion that triggered a landslide ahead. The dynamic duo jumped off at the last second to avoid being crushed. The Bat mobile caught up.

"Wow, usually crime lords use their lackeys to protect them and stay behind on missions like this. That lady is like a machine! This is weird." Robin commented. They got into the bat mobile and headed back home.

"Those were the only chemicals in the shipment. The cars you disconnected were regular passenger cars." Batman said.

"Why waste all the money to use an entire train as a decoy?" Robin asked.

"Probably to get our attention, that was Maud, as you might've guessed. Whatever was in that shipment was very important for her to guard it herself." Batman said.

"Now we just have to find out what the chemicals are to see what she might be doing with it. I doubt she's dealing drugs out, not important enough to risk herself." Robin added.

The two kept on talking, completely unaware of the malice in Maud's eyes as she watched them drive away, soaring like a bird hundreds of feet above ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Birds**

**Hello! How did you like the last chapter? If you liked it and have suggestions, please review. If you didn't, I'm still open to suggestions, so review. Thanks people! I don't own Batman, just my OCs and story plotline. :) BTW, a Serpopard is an Egyptian mythological creature. If you want more info, look it up. I'm a history nerd!**

**Two Months later…**

It was about seven O'clock PM, and Dick was at Gotham University, roaming the halls with nothing to do. He'd thought about going back to the Manor to see if anything needed doing as Robin, but had decided against it.

He went back to his dorm. This just wasn't his day. Now he'd actually have to take the time to study. He'd just gone in when he got a call. He answered, it was Batman, thank the heavens!

"I need you to come over, we've got an assassination. One of those FBI agents sent to find out more about that new organization, the Serpopards, according to one of the operatives they caught assisting the assassin."

"Did they catch the assassin?" Dick asked.

"No. They did figure out her name though, Nightingale." Batman said.

"I'm coming." Dick hung up. He locked his dorm's door, took his Robin costume, and jumped out the window when he was sure no one was looking. Then he took his motorcycle back to Wayne Manor.

When he arrived, he changed quickly into his Robin costume and darted down to the Bat Cave.

Batman was waiting for him.

"So, do you know anything about Nightingale so far?" Robin asked.

"We only know that she's called Nightingale, and that she's a girl. That's all the man we captured knew. Apparently she works for Malcolm and Maud."

"So, any leads yet?"

"No, that's why we're going back to the area where the shot came from."

Robin followed him to the Bat mobile, thinking _Wow, am I getting that reliant on Batman's tendacies to know everything?_

They drove out of the Bat Cave in silence. When they arrived at the scene of the assassination the police were already there. Among them was Commissioner Gordon.

Batman had a chat with him and told Robin to keep an eye out in case the assassin came back to get rid of any possible evidence. Obviously, she didn't leave any. Nightingale could be a challenge to bring back.

Then he spotted something. A distinct N burned into one of the vents.

"Hey Batman, I found something." Robin said on his communicator.

"What is it?" He asked.

"She burned an N into one of the vent exits across the street. Should I check it out or do you want to do that?" Robin asked, firing his grappling hook.

"I'll be there in a minute."

Robin leapt the distance and landed lightly, waiting on the edge for Batman.

When he arrived, they looked for footprints and found some. They were smaller than an adult's, and they assumed that she's either a teenager or a small adult.

"Well, she left this for someone to find. Apparently it's her signature. They found something similar to this at her last kill site in Denver." Batman said.

"I thought you didn't know anything about her yet." Robin snorted.

Batman remained silent. They found no fingerprints, and the footprints stopped at the edge of the roof. They checked the surrounding areas, but there was no trace of her.

Robin was a block away, still looking, when he heard a rustle. He spun around and came up with nothing. Maybe it was just his cape.

Then there was a thud and a scream below him. He managed to break through the window and found another dead body, this time, though, the murderer had not fled. It was a big buff guy, holding a gun. The end of it was bloody.

He saw the little boy with his mouth open, tears in his face, huddled in the corner. This jerk had just murdered that kid's father right in front of him!

"Ah, Robin, I knew that making a kill near the scene could attract attention. I may not be Nightingale, but I can handle one snoot nosed brat just like that kid I'll dispose of once I'm done with you."

The man was uncannily calm, not at all insane sounding, not overjoyed or freaking out, just plain emotionlessly calm.

The gun fired, but Robin had already begun to move. He threw a batarang at the man's hand, causing him to drop the weapon or lose a few fingers.

The mad man dove, pressing a button and the man he'd killed jumped up, delivering a kick to Robin's back.

Robin yelled in shock and rolled, jumping up in time to see the kid leap up to his feet and dart out the door. Then the men did something like Robin had seen Bane do and pumped chemicals into themselves. They were instantly twice their size and with fur coming out of the spaces of freckled scaly armor.

It was the most grotesque thing he'd ever seen.

One lunged with a shriek, and the other one wove back and forth, hissing like a snake. Robin dodged the first, which leapt backwards while Robin stumbled backwards to avoid the other man, who slashed at him with poison-tipped blades.

Robin grabbed a small table and hit the other man again as he, or it, lunged. The monster let out a short yelp and crashed through a wall.

Now it looked like road kill.

The other one let out a pitiful howl and dropped to the floor in spasms as it turned back into a human. That's when Batman showed up. He saw the one transforming back and the other one, still a monster, on the floor of the neighboring apartment building.

"What happened?" He asked gruffly, as usual.

"Well, I was on the roof and I heard someone get killed, so I come in here and there's that guy that just changed back on the floor looking dead, a kid cowering in the corner, and that man that's still a monster was telling me that just because he isn't Nightingale that he can kill me and the kid. Then I attack, the dead guy gets up and attacks, the kid laughs at me and runs, and then they did that." Robin said, pointing to the monster.

"They pumped some kind of chemical into themselves at the same time, and when I took that one down, the other one changed back and had the same injuries."

Batman was collecting a sample of the chemical and one of the blades, so Robin hog tied the man and monster and called the police. Then the dynamic duo left, heading back to the Bat Cave.

Little did they know that someone had been watching, someone that had been holding a grudge for a few months…..

**In the Lair**

When Malcolm and Maud got the message that their operatives had failed to keep the news of Nightingale from spreading to Batman and Robin, they were furious.

Maud had ordered them killed. Malcolm had told them to use the most painful poison they could work up. Failure would not be tolerated.

"And I want it done before they can squeal to the police! Where's My assassin?" Malcolm shouted.

"I'm right here. You want me to finish the job? Kill the bat?" Nightingale entered the room.

"No, we want you to kill the bird. Robin. He killed my best subjects and is the reason my shipment failed! I want you to kill him, wait for a few seconds, then take down the Bat. Bring me their masks, Nightingale." Maud said, deadly calm.

"Of course. Now we discuss my fee and payment for my last job."

"Here's payment," Malcolm handed her a case of money. "Your fee for this job will be two million."


End file.
